Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist. He served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. He also served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

Mandela was born in Mvezo to the Thembu royal family. He studied law and then worked as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation that privileged whites, and Mandela and the ANC committed themselves to ending it. He was repeatedly arrested for his activities, and in 1962 he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial.

Mandela served 27 years in prison. In 1990, amid growing pressure at home and abroad, President F. W. de Klerk released him. Mandela and de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid. In the 1994 multiracial general election, Mandela led the ANC to victory and became President. As president, he emphasised reconciliation between the country's racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. After serving one term, he declined a second and was succeeded in 1999 by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki.

Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life, but he gained international acclaim for his activism. He is widely regarded as an icon of moral leadership, democracy and social justice. He received more than 250 honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize. In South Africa, he is held in deep respect and is often called Madiba, his Xhosa clan name, and described as the "Father of the Nation".

Early life

Main article: Mandela family

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, then part of South Africa's Cape Province. His first name, Rolihlahla, is a Xhosa word that means "troublemaker." In later years he became known by his clan name, Madiba. His great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka, had ruled the Thembu Kingdom in the Transkeian Territories. His father, Gadla, was a local chief and councillor to the monarch, but he lost this job in 1926 for corruption, although Nelson was told it was because his father had stood up to a magistrate. Mandela grew up in the village of Qunu, where he attended a local Methodist school and was given the English name Nelson by his teacher. After his father died, he was cared for by the Thembu regent, Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, and raised alongside the chief's children at the palace in Mqhekezweni. There he attended a mission school, developed a love of African history, and at the age of 16 took part in the ulwaluko circumcision ritual, which marked his change from boy to man.

Mandela began his secondary education at Clarkebury Methodist High School and later moved to Healdtown. In 1939 he started a BA degree at the University of Fort Hare, where he became a close friend of Oliver Tambo. Although some of his friends were linked to the African National Congress, he avoided joining the movement at first. He was suspended from university after taking part in a protest about the quality of food, and he never returned. In 1941 he went to Johannesburg, where he found work as a clerk at a law firm and met Walter Sisulu. At night he studied for his degree through a correspondence course from the University of South Africa.

Early revolutionary activity

Mandela began studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was the only black African student and faced racism. There he became friends with Joe Slovo and Ruth First. In 1943 he met Anton Lembede, and in 1944 he helped found the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), with Lembede as president. Mandela married Evelyn Mase in October 1944. In 1947 Lembede died, and Peter Mda took over as ANCYL president. Mandela became ANCYL secretary, but he disagreed with Mda's approach. After the South African general election in 1948, the National Party began adding new apartheid legislation. Mandela and his allies began supporting direct action against apartheid, such as boycotts and strikes. In 1952 the ANC prepared a Defiance Campaign that followed the path of nonviolent resistance influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Mandela was arrested during the campaign, and he and Oliver Tambo opened their own law firm, Mandela and Tambo. Mandela's marriage to Evelyn broke down, and in 1958 he married Winnie Madikizela. In 1955 the ANC held a Congress of the People, which adopted the Freedom Charter. Mandela later said it was "an inspiration to the people of South Africa."

Main article: Treason Trial

In December 1956, Mandela was arrested with most of the ANC national executive and accused of "high treason" against the state. The Treason Trial began in Pretoria in August 1958, and in March 1961 the judges ruled that the accused were not guilty. In 1961 Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Joe Slovo co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation", abbreviated MK), an armed group, and Mandela became its chairman. MK publicly announced its existence with bombings on Dingane's Day in December 1961. Disguised as a chauffeur, Mandela travelled around the country in secret, earning the nickname "Black Pimpernel" in the press. In February 1962 he left South Africa in secret to attend a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and he visited several African countries, including Tanganyika, Cairo, and Tunis, to meet leaders and gather support. He then travelled to London and returned to Ethiopia to begin guerrilla warfare training. He completed only two months of the six-month course before being recalled to South Africa by the ANC's leadership.

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Imprisonment

Main article: Rivonia Trial

Police captured Mandela in August 1962, along with Cecil Williams, near Howick. He was found guilty of leaving the country without permission and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1964, he and other activists were found guilty of sabotage charges and given life imprisonment instead of the death sentence that the prosecution had asked for. In 1964, Mandela was sent to the prison on Robben Island, where he stayed for the next 18 years. He worked breaking rocks, studied for a Bachelor of Laws degree through letters, and was sometimes put in solitary confinement. He learned Afrikaans in the hope of changing the minds of the guards, and the prison conditions gradually improved. By 1982, Mandela was moved to Pollsmoor Prison in Tokai, Cape Town.

At Pollsmoor, Mandela was permitted to create a roof garden and was appointed patron of the United Democratic Front, which opposed the government's plans to divide the anti-apartheid movement. In 1985, he refused a government offer of release on the condition that he reject violence, saying that a prisoner cannot enter into contracts. Mandela held secret talks with Kobie Coetsee, the Minister of Justice, and in 1988 he was moved to Victor Verster Prison near Paarl to recover from tuberculosis. In 1989, F. W. de Klerk became president and decided that apartheid could not last. In February 1990, he announced Mandela's release, and Mandela left prison on 11 February 1990. He spoke to a large crowd at Cape Town's City Hall, committing himself to peace and reconciliation.

Negotiations to end apartheid

Main article: Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa

In 1990 and 1991, Mandela travelled around Africa and to other countries to gather support. He appeared at the Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute for a Free South Africa concert in London and encouraged foreign countries to support sanctions against the apartheid government. He met François Mitterrand in France, Pope John Paul II in the Vatican, and George H. W. Bush in the United States, where he was especially popular among the African American community. He also met R. Venkataraman in India, Suharto in Indonesia, Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia, and Bob Hawke in Australia. In May 1990, talks with the government led to the Groot Schuur Minute, in which the government lifted the state of emergency. Mandela was elected ANC President at the July 1991 national conference in Durban. He worked from the ANC headquarters at Shell House in Johannesburg. His marriage to Winnie was strained after he learned of her relationship with Dali Mpofu, and in April 1992 he announced their separation. He moved to the mostly white Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. Violence between ANC and Inkatha supporters in KwaZulu-Natal killed thousands of people. Mandela argued that a "third force" within the state intelligence services was fuelling the violence, and he blamed de Klerk for the Sebokeng massacre. In September 1991, Mandela, Buthelezi and de Klerk signed a peace accord, but the violence continued.

In December 1991, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) began, with Cyril Ramaphosa leading the ANC's delegation. Mandela called de Klerk the head of an "illegitimate, discredited minority regime." At CODESA 2 in May 1992, de Klerk wanted a federal system, but Mandela wanted a unitary system governed by majority rule. After the Boipatong massacre, Mandela called off the talks. At a meeting of the Organisation of African Unity in Senegal, he asked for a special session of the UN Security Council and proposed a UN peacekeeping force to prevent "state terrorism." In August 1992, the ANC held the largest strike in South African history. After the Bisho massacre, in which 28 ANC supporters and one soldier were shot dead by the Ciskei Defence Force, Mandela resumed negotiations in September. The talks agreed that a multiracial election would be held, leading to a five-year coalition government of national unity. The agreed interim constitution was based on a liberal democratic model, included a bill of rights, and divided the country into nine provinces, each with its own premier. This was a compromise between de Klerk's support for federalism and Mandela's support for a unitary government. In June 1993, the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) attacked the Kempton Park World Trade Centre. After ANC activist Chris Hani was murdered, Mandela gave a speech to calm rioting. In July 1993, Mandela and de Klerk each visited the United States, met President Bill Clinton, and received the Liberty Medal. Soon after, they were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Influenced by Thabo Mbeki, Mandela met with business leaders and played down his support for nationalisation, because he wanted to attract foreign investment. He had been encouraged to accept private enterprise at the January 1992 World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

Presidency of South Africa (1994–1999)

Main article: 1994 South African general election

Main article: Presidency of Nelson Mandela

In 1994, Mandela was elected as South Africa's first black chief executive. He was inaugurated in Pretoria on 10 May 1994. He led a Government of National Unity that included the ANC, the National Party and Inkatha. Both F. W. de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki became Deputy President. Mandela's main goal was national reconciliation. He wanted to reassure white South Africans that they were protected and represented in "the Rainbow Nation". He set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look into crimes committed under apartheid. In 1995, the Springboks won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and Mandela presented the trophy to their captain, Francois Pienaar. Many people saw this as an important step toward reconciliation.

South Africa faced serious problems. Many people were poor, and the country had large gaps in wealth and services between white and black communities. In 1996, the government replaced the Reconstruction and Development Programme with a new economic policy. Mandela was also criticised for not doing enough about crime and HIV/AIDS. Mandela stepped down as ANC President in December 1997, and he gave his farewell speech to Parliament on 29 March 1999 before retiring. In a 1999 poll, 80% of South Africans said they were satisfied with his performance as president.

Post-presidency and final years (1999–2013)

After he retired in June 1999, Mandela wanted a quiet family life, split between Johannesburg and Qunu. He started a sequel to his first autobiography, called The Presidential Years, but it was never finished and was only published after his death in 2017. Mandela found quiet life hard, so he stayed busy with public work. He worked with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which he helped found in 1999, and spent much of his time fighting HIV/AIDS, which he called "a war" that had killed more than "all previous wars." He joined the Treatment Action Campaign and urged the government to make sure HIV-positive South Africans could get anti-retrovirals. He was successfully treated for prostate cancer in July 2001. The Mandela Rhodes Foundation was created in 2003 at Rhodes House, University of Oxford, to give scholarships to African students. He also spoke at AIDS conferences in Durban and Bangkok, and he criticised Western powers, including the NATO intervention in Kosovo and the planned war in Iraq. In 2004, he announced he was "retiring from retirement" and stepped back from public life, though he still took part in some international efforts. In 2005 he founded the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust, and in 2007 he asked Robert Mugabe to step down over human rights abuses. That year he also announced The Elders, a group of world leaders. South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and Mandela made his final public appearance at its closing ceremony.

Main article: Death and state funeral of Nelson Mandela

In February 2011, Mandela was briefly hospitalised with a respiratory infection. He was admitted again in December 2012 for a lung infection and gallstone removal. In June 2013 his lung infection worsened, and he was readmitted to a Pretoria hospital in serious condition. He was discharged in September 2013, though his health remained unstable. Mandela died on 5 December 2013, aged 95, at around 20:50 local time at his home in Houghton, surrounded by his family. President Zuma announced his death on television and declared ten days of national mourning. Mandela's body lay in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, and a state funeral was held on 15 December in Qunu. About 90 representatives of foreign states attended memorial events.

Political positions

Mandela described himself as an African nationalist, a belief he had held since joining the ANC, and as a socialist. He was a practical politician rather than an intellectual scholar or political theorist. Biographer Tom Lodge said that for Mandela, politics was mainly about moral example and telling stories, and less about ideology. He took ideas from Indian leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru, African American civil rights activists, and Nkrumah, and applied them to South Africa. However, he rejected the anti-white sentiment of many African nationalists. He hoped for change through a "legal revolution" rather than violence. He moved from non-violence to using violence, and then back to non-violent negotiation. When he did use violence, he saw it as a way to bring his opponents to the negotiating table. He aimed at symbols of white supremacy rather than at white people, and he did not want a race war in South Africa.

Mandela was a believer in democracy and accepted majority decisions, even when he disagreed with them, although he sometimes spoke in a commanding way. He admired the parliamentary democracy of Britain and described the governing style of traditional Xhosa society as "democracy in its purest form." He was influenced by Marxism and, during the revolution, supported scientific socialism. He wanted a classless society. He denied being a communist at the Treason Trial. However, historian Stephen Ellis found that Mandela had been an active member of the South African Communist Party in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which was confirmed after his death. The 1955 Freedom Charter, which Mandela helped create, called for banks, gold mines and land to be taken into public ownership so that wealth would be shared more equally. Even so, during his presidency Mandela started a programme of privatisation, in line with trends in other countries at the time.

Personal life

Mandela was widely seen as a charismatic leader. The biographer Mary Benson described him as "a born mass leader who could not help magnetising people". He cared a great deal about his image and liked fine clothes. In Johannesburg in the 1950s, he built a polished public image as the "African gentleman". Later, he became known for brightly coloured Batik shirts, which came to be called "Madiba shirts". Political scientist Betty Glad called him an "exceptionally intelligent, shrewd, and loyal leader", and his official biographer, Anthony Sampson, called him a "master of imagery and performance". In private, he lived simply. He did not drink alcohol or smoke, and even as president he made his own bed. He was known for his playful humour, his friendliness, and his politeness toward everyone. He described himself as an Anglophile and was fond of Indian cuisine. He was raised as a Methodist, and the Methodist Church of Southern Africa said he stayed loyal to them throughout his life. The theologian Dion Forster called him a Christian humanist whose thinking relied more on the idea of Ubuntu than on Christian theology. Elleke Boehmer said his religious belief was "never robust".

Mandela was married three times. His first marriage was to Evelyn Ntoko Mase in October 1944, and they divorced in March 1958. His second wife was the social worker Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whom he married in June 1958. They divorced in March 1996. He married his third wife, Graça Machel, on his 80th birthday in July 1998. He had six children and seventeen grandchildren. Biographers have noted that his early life included many private relationships, and the British journalist David James Smith reported that he "constantly had a multiplicity of relationships in those years". In 2010, the newspaper Mail & Guardian reported on Mpho Pule, who believed she was Mandela's daughter. His grandson Mandla Mandela dismissed the claim because there was no DNA evidence. Verne Harris of the Nelson Mandela Foundation said Pule's account matched Mandela's timeline in Cape Town in 1945, but he left the question to the family. In 2013, Onica Nyembezi Mothoa also claimed to be his daughter. She said her mother, who worked in Pretoria, had been forced into hiding because of fears about political trouble under apartheid.

Legacy

Many sources praise Mandela's moral leadership in restoring South Africa's standing in the world. In South Africa, he was widely called "the father of the nation" and "the founding father of democracy." Outside the country, he was a "global icon" and "one of the most revered figures of our time." He is often named alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the great anti-racist and anti-colonial leaders of the 20th century. Some have described him in almost holy terms, but he said, "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances." His fame grew while he was in prison in the 1980s, when he became the world's most famous political prisoner and a symbol of the fight against apartheid.

Mandela also caused debate throughout his life, with critics on the right and the left. In the 1980s, many leaders in the Western world called him a terrorist because he supported political violence. The US State and Defense departments labelled the ANC a terrorist organisation, and Mandela stayed on their terrorism watchlist until 2008. Some in the ANC, including Frank B. Wilderson III, accused him of selling out when he agreed to negotiate with the apartheid government. His government was also criticised for not dealing well with HIV/AIDS or with high levels of poverty. The "Mandela effect" describes false memories shared by a large group, a name that came from many people wrongly remembering that Mandela died in prison in the 1980s.

Orders, decorations, monuments, and honours

Main article: List of awards and honours received by Nelson Mandela

Mandela received more than 250 awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Soviet Union's Lenin Peace Prize, and the Libyan Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights. He was also given India's Bharat Ratna in 1990, Pakistan's Nishan-e-Pakistan in 1992, and the Atatürk International Peace Prize from Turkey. He first refused the Turkish prize, citing human rights violations by Turkey at the time, but accepted it in 1999. He was appointed to the Order of Isabella the Catholic and the Order of Canada, and became the first living person made an honorary Canadian citizen. Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Bailiff Grand Cross of the Order of St. John and granted him membership in the Order of Merit. Places and groups also honoured him with statues, a day of remembrance on the Day of Reconciliation, and in 2009 the United Nations General Assembly named his birthday, 18 July, "Mandela Day." In 2015 the UN also named the amended Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners "the Mandela Rules."

Biographies and popular media

Mandela's life has been told in many books, including those by Mary Benson, Fatima Meer, Anthony Sampson, Martin Meredith, and Tom Lodge. His daughter Pumla Makaziwe Mandela also published a photo biography in 2023. His image has appeared in art and on everyday items, and he was the subject of songs such as The Specials' "Free Nelson Mandela," Hugh Masekela's "Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela)," and "Asimbonanga (Mandela)." Films about him include Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, the miniseries Madiba, Invictus, and the documentary The 16th Man.